Whim Quotes

• The pleasure of gratifying whim is very great. It is known only by those who are whimsical.

  James Boswell

  Whimsical, Pleasure, Known

  James Boswell (1956). “London Journal, 1762-1763, as First Published in 1950 from the Original Manuscript”

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• Our universe is ruled by random whim, inhabited by people who laugh at logic.

  Jeff Lindsay

  People, Laughing, Logic

  Jeff Lindsay (2008). “Dexter in the Dark”, p.72, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

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• I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance.

  Bell Hooks

  Happiness, Success, Perseverance

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• Solitude is a breeding ground for idiosyncrasy, and I relish that about it, the way it liberates whim.

  Caroline Knapp

  Solitude, Way, Breeding

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• A 'whim' is a desire experienced by a person who does not know and does not care to discover its cause.

  Ayn Rand

  Desire, Doe, Care

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.13, Penguin

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• Writing tends to cheer me; it always soothes my spirit and blesses me with the gift of an innocent, tender, childlike day. It is the sensation of having spent a few hours in my homeland, with my customs, free whims, my total freedom.

  Gabriela Mistral

  Cheer, Writing, Spirit

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• Independence is not a whim or an ambition. It is the necessary condition of our survival as an ethnic group.

  Aslan Maskhadov

  Ambition, Independence, Survival

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• Change from the top down happens at the will and whim of those below.

  Peter Block

  Leadership, Top Down, Happens

  Peter Block (2016). “The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work”, p.63, John Wiley & Sons

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• Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, they damn those authors whom they never read.

  Charles Churchill

  Envy, Criticism, Resentment

  'The Candidate' (1764) l. 57

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• Art is not fashionable. That's why fashion and art are two different things. Fashion can never be art because fashion deals with whim, what is temporary, what changes, what is transient, what is now and not now. Art has to deal with issues that are timeless, that never change.

  Duane Michals

  Fashion, Art, Two

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• Life is a whim of several billion cells to be you for a while

  Groucho Marx

  Birthday, Cute Life, Cells

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• If a man's patience is stronger than his whims and desires, then he is like an angel, but if his whims and desires are stronger than his patience, then he is like a devil. If his desire for food, drink and sex is stronger than his patience, then he is no better than an animal.

  Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya

  Sex, Angel, Animal

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• You can't take up golf on a whim and find yourself competing against Tiger Woods in the Masters six months later.

  Richard Roeper

  Golf, Finding Yourself, Six Months

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• Innovation is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Innovation, Needs, Elites

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• Some people are pragmatists, taking things as they come and making the best of the choices available. Some people are idealists, standing for principle and refusing to compromise. And some people just act on any whim that enters their heads. I pragmatically turn my whims into principles.

  Bill Watterson

  People, Choices, Principles

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• We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster's whim and the purest ideal.

  Ingmar Bergman

  Circles, Worry, Anxiety

  Ingmar Bergman (1956). “The seventh seal: a film”

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• Ministers must not be able to set rules governing solicitors on a whim, to suit their own requirements.

  Kevin Martin

  Requirements, Able, Suits

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• In knowledge of human affairs, we should never allow our minds to be enslaved by others by subjecting ourselves to their whims. We must maintain freedom of thought, and never accept anything of purely human authority into our heads. When we are presented with a diversity of opinions, we must choose, if we can; if we cannot, we must remain in doubt.

  Madeleine de Souvre, marquise de Sable

  Diversity, Doubt, Mind

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• Our bodies hold our minds hostage to their whims and rhythms.

  Alain de Botton

  Mind, Body, Rhythm

  "The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, 2000.

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• A schedule defends from chaos and whim. A net for catching days.

  Annie Dillard

  Schedules, Chaos, Catching

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• A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.

  Annie Dillard

  Time, Hands, Schedules

  "The Writing Life". Book by Annie Dillard, 1989.

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• The characteristic of coquettes is affectation governed by whim.

  Henry Fielding

  Coquette, Coquetry, Affection

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• Celebrating faith over reason is merely a way of denying what is, in favor of embracing any whim that strikes your fancy.

  Terry Goodkind

  Favors, Fancy, Way

  Terry Goodkind (2015). “Confessor”, p.481, Head of Zeus

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• You can knock down kingdoms on a whim. What you need is someone to make sure you don't get hit by a carriage when you cross the street.

  Scott Lynch

  Needs, Kingdoms, Crosses

  Scott Lynch (2015). “The Gentleman Bastard Series 3-Book Bundle: The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves”, p.1540, Del Rey

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• Fashion is the abortive issue of vain ostentation and exclusive egotism ... tied to no rule, and bound to conform to every whim of the minute.

  William Hazlitt

  Fashion, Issues, Clothes

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.205

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